Mr. Niall Ryan:

-----but we are not finished yet because we sent back a number of comments about some of the tests and the text and wording in the text but we will get another chance again. There will probably be another revision sent around again some time in February and we will get another chance to go through that again and make our concerns known. Some of them were raised during the meeting on Monday by member states when they had an opportunity. Some member states just raised one or two issues but said they had many more in their comments back to the presidency. They will all have to be looked at.

On the timeframe, this has come up a lot during the meeting in terms of the five-year timeframe. Many member states felt reporting after five years was not sufficient because with many of the tests for soil carbon or bulk density, a change will not be seen in that time.

That has been put forward. Many of them have been asked to be pushed out to seven and ten years but we will not know until we get the next text. While this is ambitious, many member states understand. The test that has to be carried out is quite technical. However, that is why we are liaising with our colleagues who have more expertise in this than us.